🌿 Did you know Nigel Farage used to vote Green? 🌿 Yes, really! Before UKIP existed, Farage cast his ballot for the Greens, way back in their late-1980s Eurosceptic era. A lot has changed since then. This article in The Political Quarterly traces the remarkable journey of the Green Party of England and Wales over the past decade. From a niche protest party to the strongest local election results in our history in 2026 (587 council seats won, 1,357 councillors, six Green-led councils, including my own Stroud!). Along the way we’ve layered anti-austerity politics, pro-Europeanism and a growing voice on international justice onto our enduring environmental core. But we remain the most ideologically distinctive party in England by some distance. And it turns out Farage’s old vote wasn’t the only surprise in this story. The Greens are winning in rural areas too. Like my own ward, a market town in the heart of Gloucestershire. The eco-populist turn under Zack Polanski had us briefly polling above both Labour and the Conservatives? 📈 Read the full piece to see how a party founded in 1973 as the “Ecology Party” became a permanent fixture of British politics: 🔗 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923x.70119 #ukpol #GreenParty #GPEW #farage #FromProtestToPluralism 🌍